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Space exploration is often seen as just a huge waste of money. It’s not a surprise that sending a robot to Mars doesn’t make a lot of money.

To explain this why space isn’t a waste of money we will try to compare the space sector to something a little bit more familiar. Surprisingly, trains are very similar to the space sector!

A train is composed of a locomotive and carriages. The locomotive pulls all the carriages along and the train company makes money from passengers and freight within carriages.

The carriages represent all fields of the space sector; there are as many carriages as we wish in our train: communication satellites, navigation, Earth observation, transport systems, tourism, education, etc. Most people acknowledge that satellites play a very important role in our economy but they remain skeptical about space exploration.

In fact, most return on investment within the space sector comes from transfer of technology and sciences to the industry. On May 12th 2014 at the Copernicus Conference in Athenes, Dr. Christina Giannopapa (Relations Member States Department) declared: “Every Euro spent in space gives back 6 Euros in economic development”.

Space exploration is the most important component to invest in!

Space exploration is the locomotive of the train. This is the leader, the power, the direction, the inspiration. Space exploration transfers all its energy to the space sector and drives all synergies. This is the element that creates the movement.

Investing in space exploration is essential for the global space sector. The locomotive alone doesn’t make profit but the train is not going anywhere without a locomotive. Space exploration alone doesn’t generate much profit but it is the most important power source for all other space fields. The train needs both: locomotive and carriages in order to be successful.

The locomotive “space exploration” leading the entire space sector

In steam trains, the motor is powered by carburant (coal) and combustive (air). In the space train, the role of carburant is played by money. If more money is injected: the train will be able to go further, faster and will be able to carry more loads. Therefore, carriages will generate more profit. Similarly, the role of combustive is played by the unlimited amount of people who wish to move forward in space exploration.

Designing the most efficient duo of locomotive and carriages is the job of space actors.